Last April, a 34-year-old woman and her 38-year-old live-in boyfriend were arrested for allegedly burying the corpse of the woman's 9-year-old daughter in a Nara graveyard. Osaka police believe that the child had been a victim of abuse at the hands of the boyfriend. School authorities had earlier suspected abuse and made their concern known to the mother. Neighbors told police that the girl was sometimes locked out on the balcony of the apartment.
The dramatic nature of the story guaranteed close coverage, and the general reaction was one of exhausted resignation. It seemed as if this sort of tragedy has been appearing in the news on a regular basis for as long as people could remember. Back in 2000, when the government reinforced laws to allow local authorities to take charge of children they suspected were victims of abuse and neglect, the sudden prominence of such cases in the news was seen as being a result of greater awareness. Child abuse has always been a problem, but now people recognized it for what it was and were acting on their concerns.
Ten years later, nothing seems to have changed, and many of the cases that make the news all have a disconcerting narrative sameness: Single mother moves in with new boyfriend who tends to resent her child's claim on the mother's attention; mother, desperate for attention herself, allows boyfriend to assume disciplinary responsibilities; the violence escalates; the child dies. And it's no coincidence that the principals involved are invariably poor. The story is almost trite.